been severely hammered by declining

GOVERNMENT POLICIES
CLOBBER MANUFACTURERS

Just as critics predicted, the
furniture and cabinet industry has

import tariffs and high interest rates.
Earl Spitzig and other

Local 1-500 members at Hanover
Kitchens in Ontario are victims of
those government policies.

Pace 10

YH

LOCAL 1-217: AT WORK
IN THE BIG CITY

Working on a log boom on the Fraser
River is deckhand Paul Mahal, union
member at MacMillan Bloedel’s
Canadian White Pine Division. Like
many other mills during recession, the
MB plant is on a work sharing
agreement. Feature story on local
inside.

PAGE 6

Putting safety on the table

loops in November of last year, delegates vowed to

A T B.C.’s first area safety conference, held in Kam-

make health and safety issues a priority for 1991
negotiations. The delegates resolved to work within their
jurisdictions to bring the issues out for discussion during
wage and contract talks. See page 13

eS eG 1

BEFORE THE BIG SHUTDOWN — MacMillan Bloedel Port Alberni Plywood plant workers (I. to r.) Phil Towel, John McMillan, and

Gerry Tuinstra working at the mill’s log deck. MB announced in November 1990 that the 350 man plant would shut down perman-
ently but no date has been set. — See feature page 8.

Unemployment picture worsens

‘The employment problems in the
Canada’s wood products industry con-
tinue to worsen according to the lat-
est results of an IWA-CANADA unem-
ployment survey. During the survey
week of January 21-25, 1991 over 19%
of the union’s national membership
were without work. Similar surveys in
November and October, 1990 showed
unemployment rates of 18% and 17.1%
respectively. i i
Compared to the entire Canadian
economy, the last three survey results
show that woodworkers continue to
face a much tougher employment
scene. The IWA surveys indicate that
unemployment amongst woodwork-
ers is running more double the
ional 5
a rood warcara continue to be the

hardest hit of all those covered by the
survey. During the January survey,
for example, almost one-third of the
union's BC. plywood membership was
unemployed. Most of the hardship in
this sector is being felt by coast ply-
wood workers who have seen closures
and curtailments push the regional
unemployment rate for these wood-
workers to 40.8%.

Seasonal factors had some impact
on the survey results. In the logging
sector, for example, weather condi-
tions between December and March
often force a curtailment in logging
activity. In the region with the largest
concentration of unionized loggers,
the B.C. coast, unemployment during
the survey week reached 21.7%.

In every region and local the over-

riding factors for the increased unem-
ployment continues to be high inter-
est rates and an over-valued Canadian
dollar. Despite recent declines in
Canadian rates, the federal govern-
ment, through its lead agency the
Bank of Canada, continues to hold
interest rates well above those in the
US. This artificial premium in Cana-
dian interest rates is currently run-
ning about 4 percentage points above
comparable U.S. rates and has driven
up the value of our dollar.

At various public forums IWA
-CANADA national president Jack
Munro has harshly condemned the
federal government's interest rate
policy.

Change now
[WA tells
hearings

VANCOUVER, BC. - In an appear-
ance before a group of Liberal mem-
bers of parliament on February 7,
IWA-CANADA’s research director
Douglas Smyth spoke optimistically
about the longer term future of the
Canadian forest industry but cau-
tioned that unless some current gov-
ernment policies are corrected “the
prophecies of the demise of the solid
wood products sector will become self
fulfilling.”

Smyth, along with IWA-CANADA
president Jack Munro, appeared
before a panel of Liberal politicians
who were on a regional tour of B.C.

“We decided we'd tell the Liberal
party what we thought,” said Munro.
“Now that the Liberals are not in
power they sound a lot like the NDP.
However we remember that when they
were in power, they acted like a bunch
of Conservatives.”

Smyth told the task force that,
during the 1990’s, the future prospects
of B.C. and Canadian softwood and
plywood industries will be bright. He
said that Canadian producers will
enjoy improved U.S. markets, (where
80% of B.C.’s Interior wood and two
thirds of Canada’s output is sold) as
our southern neighbour experiences
future timber shortages.

“In Oregon and Washington, for
instance, the depletion of old growth
Douglas fir inventories and the
impact of the successful environmen-
tal campaign to save the spotted owl
will cause approximately 3 billion
board feet of lumber to be withdrawn
from production by 1992,” said Smyth.

According to figures compiled by
the union’s research department in
the first three quarters of 1990, 36
sawmills and plywood plants in those
two states closed permanently and
many other operations are running
with severe curtailments.

Smyth also said in the U.S, south,
rapid liquidation of natural stands of
southern Pine will force a greater
reliance on fast grown plantation
wood which no longer meets current

Continued on page fourteen